Voting for Trump is Voting to Turn America From a Constitutional Democracy to a Christian Nationalist Theocracy

 CNN: Trump, Urging Christians to Vote, Says "You won't have to do it again"

For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ...These are blemishes on your love-feasts, white they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves. They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.  Jude, v. 4, 12,13  NRSV

Any speculation that a return of Trump to the White House would be the end of American Constitutional Democracy has been confirmed by multiple political events in recent months.  There's a reason why, as word leaked out past our censoring media about the contents of the 900-plus-page Project 2025,  Trump rushed out a somewhat incoherent statement to attempt to separate himself from it, deny he had anything to do with its development, and attempt to convince people he was not supportive of it.  

All of that, of course, as with anything else having to do with Donald Trump, is a lie.  Deceit is the trademark of his campaign, that, along with placing a monetary value on any aspect of politics or the practice of morality and values.  The Heritage Foundation is responsible for Project 2025, which is a blueprint for "reconstructing" the American Republic, turning it into a Christian theocracy, eliminating all aspects of the rule of the people in favor of what they interpret as "the rule of the Lord," in their hands as his chosen ones.  

This is, as the quote from the Apostle Jude says in the cited quote above, an "intrusion" of licentiousness and denial of the gospel of Jesus Christ into the Christian church.  There's nothing new here.  Trump is relying on the support of fundamentalist, Pentecostal/Charismatic, Evangelical Christians to use their votes to gain the power of the Presidency in order to implement every point of Project 2025.  This is a deal with the devil.  They help Trump get back in office, he implements their Christian nationalist theocracy, and stays in office until he dies.  

They have a new savior.  He has all the power and money he ever wanted. 

Project 2025 is a Dangerous, Radical, Christian Nationalist Plan for the Destruction of the American Republic

Turning Point is one of the vehicles being used by Trump's campaign to subvert Evangelical churches, turning them into political action committees for his campaign.  This is the place where people are told that the points made in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount are "liberal talking points," where turning the other cheek and loving one's enemies "have gotten us nowhere," according to Don Jr., speaking at a Turning Point rally.  

So it should not come as a surprise that it was a Turning Point rally where Trump broadly hinted at the eliminating elections. 

"Christians, get out and vote.  Just this time," he said. "You won't have to do it anymore.  Four more years.  You know what?  It'll be fixed.  It'll be fine.  You won't have to vote any more my beautiful Christians," he urged.  

Take that seriously.  He means it.  

Christian nationalism, in some form or another, has been around in conservative Evangelical churches, ever since people first came to America to escape religious persecution, at the hands of state controlled churches, in Europe.  I grew up in Southern Baptist churches, and the idea of Christians being in control of government, and a candidate's personal Christian faith being a qualification to serve in office was something I heard in Sunday school as a kid.  I heard people pray publicly that God would take control of those in leadership, give them the "wisdom" and "courage" they needed to lead, meaning, to use their position to the advantage of the church and to promoting Christianity over all other religious beliefs.  And I've heard prayers ask for God to use people in office to bring judgment on "sinners."  

This is not a Christian doctrine.  The idea of a Christian "theocracy" along the lines of Old Testament, ancient Israel is not only not found anywhere in the Christian gospel, it is actually something that Jesus dismissed, in clear, direct terms, and which is communicated clearly by several of his Apostles.  When Jesus said, "My Kingdom is not of this world," he was referring to what is known as the "ecclesia," the local groups of people who gathered together around the common beliefs, values and conduct taught by Jesus and the apostles, held together and motivated spiritually, rather than having beliefs, values and conduct enforced by what was, in his day, the power of an emperor who believed himself to be absolute and divine.  

Most of the history of western civilization since the Roman Empire is an illustration of multiple failed attempts at establishing Christian nationalism and the rule of the church over the political state, resulting in a whole lot of failure and the massive oppression and suffering of people who had to live under it.  Starting with the rule of Constantine, through all of the history of feudalism, European monarchies, the institutional church, with political power behind it to enforce its creeds and practices, was one of the most brutal, cruel, inhumane and godless institutions on the face of the earth.  

Even after centuries of struggling against oppression, the resulting Renaissance, which produced the Age of Enlightenment, and the subsequent Protestant Reformation did not put an end to the bloodshed and violence produced by various forms of Christian nationalism.  The largest branch of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, negotiated a political treaty with Hitler's National Socialist government in Germany and Austria in order to protect its property, influence and the intellectual property of its schools, known as the Reichskonkordat, and essentially turned its back on the evils perpetrated by the Nazis, including the Holocaust.  

Don't think that Project 2025 will be any less violent, cruel, oppressive or disruptive to the lives of millions of people as past attempts at enforcing Christian nationalism have been.  It won't be.  When people have convinced themselves they are fighting for a righteous cause, on God's behalf, and they think he's right there holding their coat-tails and cheering them on, those who think they're doing God's work will ignore, or justify, abandoning core principles of the Christian gospel like turning the other cheek or loving one's enemies.  They've got a whole set of heretical doctrine aimed at nullifying the core values of the Christian gospel in order to be the beneficiaries of political dominion.  

Another Lost Cause 

I doubt that much of conservative, Evangelical Christianity in the United States can be redeemed from this intrusion of licentiousness and the denial of the core, foundational principles of the Christian gospel, taught by Jesus himself.  Even Trump's public claim that he has never done anything in his life requiring God's forgiveness, which is just about as stark and thorough of a denial of the core, foundational principle upon which the Christian gospel rests, a denial that the Apostle John calls "the spirit of antichrist" in his first epistle [I John 4:1-3], does not deter the support of most conservative, white Evangelicals.  Nor has the steady stream of church members leaving churches whose leaders are aligned with right wing extremism deterred the political support, even though across the spectrum of white, American Evangelicalism, that number has reached 16 million since 2016, including a whopping 3.5 million from the Southern Baptist Convention alone.  

The immorality keeps piling on.  From the adulterous affairs he had, committed against all three of his wives, as he married the "other woman" in each instance, except the most recent public affair, with Stormy Daniels, to his admission of having had sexual relations with "hundreds" of women, along with grabbing them indiscriminately by the genitals, to a civil rape conviction, and now, to his association with Jeffrey Epstein, and his 34 felony convictions, nothing deters the support of conservative Evangelicals.  By their own doctrinal standards, that refusal is an indication that, to use an Old Testament expression, "Ichabod has been written over the door."  The Spirit of God has departed from these churches.  

They cannot be redeemed or restored.  

The rest of us, whether we are following a Christian faith, a religious belief or not, must unite together to keep this worldview from getting its hands on the political power of the United States government.  We need to make sure that those whom we elect are committed to the preservation of American constitutional democracy, and to the preservation of the American Republic.  We must vote.  But we must also work together to defeat the onslaught of attempts that are already in the works to steal this election, subvert the results and suppress the turnout.  And once we have secured a victory, we must encourage those who have been elected to make sure the weaknesses we have seen, and feared will be exploited, are corrected, so that every election we have is free and fair.